TEXAS SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

colleagues Associate Justices Ruth V. Brazzil (later Roome) of Galveston and Hattie L. Henenberg of Dallasauthored several months after the hearing continues to be cited even today.A Houston Chronicle article about the anniversary of women winning the right to vote quoted mygrandmother as saying, “My Mother wasn’t the type to make a big to-do about such things and never let honorsgo to her head. She just did the work she felt she had to do and went about her business quietly.” 16On May 23, 1925, Chief Justice Hortense Sparks Ward issued the opinion affirming the El Paso Courtof Civil Appeals decision. “We…affirm the judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals reversing and renderingthe decision of the trial court.” 17 Her colleagues Associate Justices Brazzil and Hennenberg wrote concurringopinions. 18 The panel thus vindicated the property rights and full title to both tracts that Woodmen of the Worldsought to defend. Since 1925, Darr has been cited three times by the Fifth Circuit and more than thirty times byTexas courts, most recently in 2009 by now Chief Justice Nathan Hecht. 19The Associated Press asked Hortense on the day after the investiture how she felt about her appointment.Her words were insightful:Woman lawyers raised to the highest court in the state respond to the same emotion as menraised to the same position....This emotion is one of pride in being honored with what lawyersconsider the highest honor of the profession….The novelty is entirely lost in the great responsibility.A real lawyer always dreams of some time sitting on the Supreme Bench [sic]. That is the highesthonor of the profession. 20Judicature quoted an eyewitness to the swearing-in ceremony as saying that, “Chief Justice Cureton administeredthe oath to the women.... None of the women raised her right hand, as is customary among men taking an oath ofoffice. They did not seem to be flurried by the experience.” 21 The journal also noted that Chief Justice Ward’s lateropinion for the Court was “clear, well-reasoned, and well-researched.”Another news report mentioned that the Texas Supreme Court pressed its Deputy Clerk into service afterthe Court’s Chief Clerk refused to participate in the ceremony.A Woman of Keen Political AcumenHortense’s drafting of the “Hortense Ward Act,” also known as the Married Woman’s Property Rights Lawwhen passed by the Texas Legislature in 1913, offers additional insight about this remarkable woman’s values16See Karkabi, “O’Connor’s nomination,” Houston Chronicle.17Johnson, 114 Tex. at 527, 272 S.W. at 1102; Dunn, Legacy, 12; Haley, Narrative History, 167-68.18Johnson, 114 Tex. at 527-28, 272 S.W. at 1102-03 (Judge Brazzil’s Concurrence); 114 Tex. at 528, 272 S.W. at 1103 (Judge Henenberg’sConcurrence). See also Dunn, Legacy, 13.19See, e.g., Entergy Gulf Sts., Inc. v. Summers, 282 S.W.3d 433, 447 n.11 (Tex. 2009) (“The most famous exercise of the designationpower was surely Governor Pat Neff’s appointment of a Special Supreme Court consisting of three women, Mrs. Hortense Ward,Special Chief Justice, and Miss Ruth Virginia Brazzil and Miss Hattie L. Henenberg, Special Associate Justices ….”); Second Inj.Fund v. Keaton, 162 Tex. 250, 254, 345 S.W.2d 711, 714 (1961). See also Dunn, Legacy of Johnson v. Darr, at 26 (more than thirtyTexas state court cases and three Fifth Circuit decisions that relied on Darr); Haley, Narrative History, 168.20See Karkabi, “Justice O’Connor,” Houston Chronicle.21See Larry Berkson, “Women on the Bench: A Brief History,” 65(6) Judicature 286 (Dec. 1982); Barbara Culver, “Women on theBench,” Tex. B. J. 523 (June 1979).55